Future fertility for young cancer patients preserved with new procedure from U of C researchers

A new medical procedure in Calgary aims to offer young cancer survivors the future option to have biological children, even after undergoing treatments that can cause fertility problems.

University of Calgary researchers have introduced an ovarian tissue cryopreservation (OTC) program, which is the first of its kind in Alberta. The procedure is meant for children and adolescents with ovaries who are facing treatments that could affect their fertility, like chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and offers the option to have their eggs frozen.

OTC involves removing a portion of the patient's ovary through laparoscopy, using a camera and small incisions in the abdomen, before cancer treatment begins. Slow freezing is then used to preserve the tissue, to implant it back in the patient in the future. 

The technique is still relatively new, and Calgary is one of a few cities in Canada to offer the procedure for patients facing high-risk treatment. While there have been no patients in Canada who have had their tissue re-implanted yet, more than 200 live births around the world have resulted from OTC, said Dr. Shu Foong, a clinical assistant professor at the U of C's Cumming School of Medicine and medical director of the Regional Fertility Program.

"This is truly a novel technique that's available, but also the only option for prepubertal children up until this time," Foong told reporters on Monday.

The program, developed by U of C researchers, is now available at the Alberta Children's Hospital. The procedure has been a research interest for Foong for nearly a decade. In that time, she and her team have thawed experimental tissue to ensure its integrity, and have been happy with the results.

Chemotherapy and radiation therapy can otherwise cause patients to delay puberty or undergo early menopause. The goal of OTC, Foong said, is to offer hope for young cancer patients to have the option to have a biological child later in life.

"It is our way to say, as a medical community, that there is hope, that we do believe in the ability for them to fight this and to look forward to the future," Foong said.

Foong added there's also ongoing research into offering similar tissue preservation for young patients with testes, and that research is ongoing into growing eggs in the lab from the tissue, without needing to re-implant it.

Future family planning and the fertility problems that treatments like chemotherapy can cause is a common and difficult conversation for families when a young person is diagnosed with cancer, said Dr. Greg Guilcher.